Defiberizing device



Patented Mai. 30, 1937 UNITE STATE oFmCE DEFIBERIZING DEVICE tion of Tennessee Application July 9, 1932, SerialNo. 621,561

4 Claims.

The present invention relates to defiberizing wood and other material. It has to do particularly with such material when it has been softened by water treatment or is green. Many uses have been found for the fibers of wood. This is particularly true when the fibers have been obtained in an undamaged condition and in their natural lengths. The present invention brings forth fibers in a softer and more usable condition than has ever heretofore been possible.

To obtain the best results, it has been found desirable to reduce bundles of fibers to single fibers whenever such has been possible. Groups of a few fibers are highly useful. The present in-.

vention is efiective for providing single separate fibers and bundles of a few, fibers all of their natural length.

Among the objects of the invention are the following: 20 A new and highly efficient machine for the reduction of wood and the like to its fibrous constituents.

A novel device for producing full length individual fibers or bundles of fibers of a relatively small number of individual fibers.

Better means for the disintegration of wood and the like into its fibrous units.

A novel means and process for tearing wood into its individual fibers or bundles of a few fibers each without destroying the fibers themselves.

A new and novel means for applying a disintegrating force to wood or the like whereby the fibers of the material are separated into individual fibers or into bundles of a few fibers each.

A machine of rigid disintegrating members capable of maintaining their rigidity while contacting the material which is being disintegrated.

These objects, andsuch other objects as may hereinafter appear, are obtained by the novel construction, unique arrangement and improved combination of the several elements which con-- stitute the forms of the invention illustrated herein, such forms being but a few of a number of forms which the invention may take.

In the drawing which is employed to illustrate such forms of the invention herein described:-

Figure 1 is a vertical section through an assembly of parts used for the defiberizing operation herein described, such parts embodying means for practicing the invention;

Figure 2 is a plan view of said form of the invention;

3 Figures 3, l and 5 are sectional views of forms which the defiberizing belt may take; and v Figures, 6 and 7 are plan views of the belts shown in the preceding figures.

Like reference characters are used to designate similar parts in the drawing and in the description of the invention which follows..

The defiberizing device herein described is mounted upon a base l0. Said base may comprise any suitable uprights and horizontal members with brace members as required. Upon base ill 10 are standards or brackets ll of suitable number, between the end two of which a belt I1 is made to operate.

For handling belt I1, there are a suitable number of pulleys. A driving pulley l2, driven pulley l3, and an idler M, are shown. Each of the said pulleys is journalled in a pair of said brackets. Pulley l2 is driven by a belt l5 which travels about a pulley l6 keyed to or otherwise attached to pulley l2. Other driving means may be substituted for belt i5. 20

The position of pulleys l2, l3 and. It is such that the belt l! which extends thereabout is held in a substantially horizontal plane in respect to its top flight, the tension upon the belt I! being such that no sag or very slight sag occurs therein at any point. Idler i4 is to aid the prevention of sag. The belt I! preferably is driven at high speed.

Over the belt I! is a hopper 2B. The walls of said hopper may be straight as is shown in the drawing, Figure 1. Its lower edges at its ends are in close proximity to the tips or points or prongs or teeth on the belt whereby to prevent material escaping between the hopper and the belt.

At one end of the device, there may be a discharge chute or hopper 23, as shown. The discharge hopper 23- encloses an area extending over pulley l2. In the hopper is a blower l8, by which 0 material is forced therepast and out of discharge spout [9.

The belt i! may comprise a flexible member 24. Suitably secured therein and preferably extending wholly therethrough are prongs or teeth 25. (Figure 3.) Said prongs or teeth may have heads 26 the under side of which rest against the inner side of the belt. Such heads furnish means for securing the prongs in position in the texture of the belt in addition to the frictional engagement .of the shank'of the, teeth with the material of the belt.

Each of the prongs has a sharply pointed section 26 which comes into contact with the wood or. other material to be disintegrated. The arrangement of the teeth is staggered. The projection of the prong II above the body of the belt is relatively slight but enough to insure the engagement of the end of the prongwith wood in of "the top flight of the belt. The shape of the prong should admit of its ready dischargeof fibrous material which collects therein.

Each prong is of a material and has body sufil- 1 cient' to prevent it from-bending upon contacting wood or other material. Such prong or tooth may be described as rigid pointed members.

The described flexible belt may be of leather or of other suitable belt material which has thickness suilicient for holding the prongs against displacement from the material of the belt. Y

A metal device may be substituted for the leather belt. The metal belt or chain ll should be flexible. It may be of coupled links. Whatever form the belt takes, it should have pointed teeth Ii and the teeth should be in staggered arrangement. If staggering is impracticable,

' then oscillatory means may be supplied to cause lateral displacementof the alined teeth during the travel of the teeth from one end of .the top flight of the belt to the opposite .end. The teeth may be like those employed for a rotary saw or the like or the teeth may resemble in contour the teeth of a link saw.- By forming the metal belt 30 in sections 32, each of which is relatively narrow, and in-which the teeth' 3! of each adjacent section are in staggered arrangement, as is shown in Figure 7, a highly eflicient disintegrator is had. In Figures 4 and 5, teeth attached to belts of metal are shown. In the former, the teeth 'extend through the belt, while in Figure 5, the

prongs are welded into position in the top surface of the belt. v

The belt normally should travel about six thousand feet a minute. It may be made to travel faster. Wood blocks or other materials which are, fed into the hopper rest upon the- 5 prongs when such materials attain the bottom of the hopper. Such blocks generally are not placed in the hopper until the belt has been put in motion.

As the belt is travelling at high'speed, there 7 is no opportunity for the prongs 2! or teeth ii to bite deeply into the wood or other material which rests on the belt, but on the contrary, the prongs rasp or scrape the outer surface of the wood, pulling therefrom the individual fibers,

or where-it does not disintegrate the fibers into single units,jthe teeth or prongs, tear from thewood block or other material bundles formed of e a small number of fibers. Rigidity of the teeth maintains the point contact of thgt'eeth and prevents the teeth bending to present a portion of the body instead of the points.

, Wood before-being put in the device should be thoroughly soaked, if it has been, previously dried; Green wooddoes not require moistening. The

fibers then are readily torn from the body of the.

wood as individual fibers, each of which is adapted to remain in unitary condition as soon as dried following the disintegration of the wood or other material from which it is obtained.

block, they are carried by the force of the belt to the end. of the housing and are; discharged by way of the chute provided therefor, the blower aiding in such discharge.

Asthe fibersare pulled or drawn from the wood a plane measurably above the'plane of travel out possibility of grooving the contacted face 1 The'pressure at which the wotd is dla ntee iectir;

gratedis relatively slight for the surface area provided by the belt is quite large, thus dis-' tributing the weight, of a block ofwood or other material to reduce, the pressure of the wood upon the belt. when measured in .terms of area.

Because the belt travels at high speed,'and because the belt is maintained taut during the entire'operation, and for the further reason that the teeth are rigid enough to' prevent bending axially, the'action of the belt, whetherit be of the one style or of the ,other, is likethat of a lightly applied rasp or file. While, the-action of the belt is constant, the force .of the teeth is actually gradually applied with the result that the device produces fibers in their individual state or in bundles of a few fibers. It'usually disintegrates thefibers in their full length and in a soft condition. J

- If desired, material may be fed into the hop per so that the fibers are removed-longitudinally of the material or transversely as desired. Suitable guides may be aillxed to the hopper to hold the material in, a selected relationship to the belt, 1. e., longitudinally of or transversely thereof.

As shown in the drawing. the area of the surface of'the tooth carrying member enga ing a block of wood is greater than the area of the surface of any block of wood in'contact with it. The

teeth are arranged so that succeeding teeth are defined, spaced apart paths producing grooves in the block of'wood. 0n the contrary, the travel of the teeth is in promiscuous parallelism withof the block of wood.

What is claimed as new and is desired to be secured by Letters Patent of theUnited States or the like into fibers, and comprising a receptacle for holding in a selected angular position wood to be treated, a belt havingseparate teeth in.

1. a means for disintegrating a block of wood thebelt staggered relationship for material in said receptacle, the area of said belt having teeth in contact with such block of wood being greater than the area of the surface of the block of wood under treatment, means for moving said belt.

roller means for guiding said belt across said 'receptacle with each tooth in a substantially straight linear path and with the exposed ends of said teeth operating substantially in a single plane while in engagement with material in said receptacle, rotary means for driving said belt at high speed, and suction means at the extreme of the movement of said belt in its path under said holding means for removing disintegrated wood.

2. A device for disintegrating fibrous material such as wood, comprising an endle'ssbelt, sup-- porting means for said belt providing a ,substan tially fiattop flight therefor, means for driving said belt at high speed, rigid teeth in staggered relationship on said belt and having points promoving with said belt with such points in contiguous or overlapping paths, a bottomless hopper g upwardly on the top flight thereof andamazes 5 3. A device for disintegrating fibrous material such as wood, comprising an endless belt, rollers carrying said belt and providing a substantially flat top flight therefor, means for driving said belt in one direction, rigid teeth in staggered relation- 10 ship on said belt and having points projecting upwardly therefrom, a bottomless hopper over the top flight of said belt and limited in horizontal extent to the area of said top flight, a. housing at the end of the top flight of said belt toward which 15 the top flight is driven and extending from said hopper to a position removed from said hopper and said top flight but'adjacent said belt, and v suction means in connection with said housing and operable to remove disintegrated material from said belt. v

4. A belt 'for use in defiberizin'g wood, comprising rigid teeth adapted to support the weight of andan'efldless flexible wood to be deflberized, tooth carrying member, said teeth consisting of pins set in said member in staggered positions longitudinally and transversely of said member,

the latter including means for maintaining said teeth upright and in position while the teeth support the weight of the wood and remove flbers therefrom; a

NEH.- C. WARD. 

